The Art wall I assembled last night, right in front of Adam's Futo Coffee Cart. Sit, sip a chilled coffee and enjoy.

I spent the better part of last night ‘curating’ and putting up a small show of my students’ work.

Last quarter I promised my Neoclassic to Modern Art students I would organize an exhibit of their art in the main foyer of our school and I am happy to announce that that’s one promise kept:)

My students had the choice to either write an essay or pick a painting of their choice, research its symbolical meaning and attempt to blow up a detail reproducing it in the same media of the original. It was a way I thought students of an art lecture course could get closer to the art.

You can see the results of their efforts here. My objective was not to have a typical gallery show, but combine all the work as in a collage, interspersing the canvases with the prints of the full scale work the students provided. It was a challenge to combine different shapes, colors (art curating and gallery display being an artform of their own) and be true to some sort of grid. The wall is bursting with energy. This was an Art intervention/injection for our architecture school!

I especially loved the documentation of the process. One student wrote what looked like a blog entry, taking photos of his painting at different stages:

‘It is so strange, I found, once I started painting,

I could not put the brush down.’

Well, my work here is done.

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What you see here is a prime spot, the little urban ‘piazzetta’ we have for drinking coffee @Futo’s, hearing Adam playing guitar (or his always interesting music selection), talking, scheming etc…..

As my professor Francisco Sanin would say, this is a place for moments of urbanity.

It’s a bit of a clandestine show, art that just shows up during the night….as I did not clear all the red tape forehand, but I am hoping we are going to be able to enjoy these for one or two weeks.

So here, to all the students that asked me in the hallway, or staircases, or doorfront : When is our show?

It is already the middle of the month and what do I have to show for April? Only two posts! Argh.

And very little art.

Granted, my Hawai’i reportage took a bit of time to prepare–and I guess I was in Hawai’i to take a break–but I have, once again, succumbed to my usual Spring funk. While in parts of the world with actual seasons (not that I am complaining, absolument, non) Mother Nature wakes up from the winter torpor, I go through the slowest time of the year during the months of April, May and June. I do not know why (well, April, is, after all, the cruellest month) but every year, without fail, spring finds me off, with no energy: my days are simply too much yin and not enough yang. Call them the Spring Blues.

School started again after my trip, and San Diego saw a lot of rain and days colder than average which resulted in me coming down with the nth something this year. And, excuse me, did I mention the earthquake? Oh yes, now when I am up late I glance from time to time, with paranoia, at the chains/switches hanging from my chandelier/fan (not my choice) and check if they are doing the swing dance like the night of the aftershocks.
Oh yes. What a rolling good time that was.
I also broke my camera (yes the unbreakable one, I was soo good for 3 years) in a freak accident with a bathroom floor in the Hawai’i airport, as soon as I landed. So, of course I am seeing beautiful things I cannot capture all the time now, please send me good vibes as I am getting the camera checked tomorrow.

I am trying to counteract the slump by making lists, decluttering and going back to the gym–but I must get back to doing art daily. There’s been some architorture and some writing these past couple of weeks, but my mechanical pencil is feeling neglected and giving me the eye.
Very excited to announce I received a small painting commission, and I will post my progress in these pages 🙂

I must say this rocked my socks and moved me to write today. I know this map will def. motivate me…I had no idea I was read so far and wide (starry eyes). Um, hello random google search clicks from Australia;)

I have been working on a post on Wood and hope to publish it tomorrow, and get back into the swing of things, because when I get my art in daily everything else seem to run smoother. Do you still love and need me?

My little wonderings took me to Italian literary blogs, so forgive if there is no art in this here post, just my writing. I have been recently (finally) taking advantage of my Netflix subscription to watch cerebral movies (and get addicted to the show Weeds, and its quite incredible music …like how i feel right now). During Spring Break I very much enjoyed the Tudors (i know, total nonsequitur…I’m jussaying)
I am noticing and appreciating more good writing and well timed dialogues amongst all the visual candy I have indulged in. And they seem to all come from the Showtime shop. Mmm..

Well this is my daily dispatch from the fog zone, hopefully see you tomorrow.

Time to get back to the shop, this time with a decluttered home (loveyou flylady) and a clear(er) mind!

Back in California, back from the aqua, verdant heaven-on-earth that is Hawai’i.

I learned about the Birthing Rocks, the most sacred site in O’ahu, the mystical place where the Alii, the Kings and Queens of Hawaii, were born. At the spectacular Bishop Museum a storyteller sang and cried the story of the Hawaiian people and the forced annexation of a proud and sovereign nation. We learned the meaning of a ceremonial hula dance- which was once practiced underground- andthe symbolism of the dance movements. The words in the Hawai’i language are an ode to the stewardship of the natural bounty of the Isles.

Most of all I basked in the sun, played in the water, and saw all I could of the Island, by foot, vespa (in two-no helmet!) and PT Cruiser… I filled my eyes with these views–two things really, sea and water, the most amazing thing about the latter being its changing color depending on what side of Oahu we were.

It took me a few days after I got back to go through the circa 3000 photos from the trip (the convenience of digital camera being both a blessing and a curse). At last, here are few shots -raw- of pretty, pretty water…my postcards from paradise.

Ink on tracing paper. Kuwait, January 2010. The scene at the bottom is what I saw-or decided to see- at The Avenues, the most popular malla in Kuwait City. There is nothing like seeing photography and drawings from a trip abroad to make you realize all reality is subjective, and we choose to see what we want to. We just don’t realize it in our own backyard.

Final Twomoons Piece, Summer 2008

July 27, San Diego Museum Of Art. The Age of Enlightenment – Gabrielle Emilie Le Tonnelier de Breuteuil, Marquise du Chatelet by Yinka Shonibare- Ink on hand.book paper